The use of wheeled accessories to assist in moving a watercraft over land is quite old. The most common accessory is a trailer wherein the watercraft is cradled by the trailer and moved, either by mechanical assistance or by human power, to a desired location. However, where small watercraft are involved, particularly dinghies, it is not necessary to have a trailer as the weight of such craft are generally less than 300 pounds. While it may be possible for many users of such craft to carry or drag it to a desired location, if the distance involved is far or the user does not desire to do so, it become impracticable to carry or drag the craft. Thus, wheeled assistance of some form is necessary.
With respect to dinghies, a common transportation scenario involves the user loading the dinghy atop a transportation vehicle such as a camper or in a pickup truck bed, transporting the dinghy to the desired launch location, removing the dinghy from the transportation vehicle, and moving by hand the dinghy to the launch ramp or shore. It is during this last step that many users become frustrated due to the difficulty in moving the dinghy by hand to the ramp or shore. In view of this difficulty, several solutions have been proposed. Since dinghies such as row boats or the like are not sensitive to speed issues, boat drag is of only slight concern. Therefore, proposed solutions include the attachment of wheels to the stern transom section of the boat. These wheels extend past the bottom hull portion of the dinghy and may be removable from brackets affixed thereon or may be permanently attached thereto. The user is then required to elevate the bow of the dinghy and pull it to the desired location, with the transom wheels supporting the stern of the craft.
Obviously, the foregoing solution is not without drawbacks. The primary drawback is that the user must still elevate the bow portion of the dinghy in order to transport it. Thus, the user is required to elevate the craft and propel the craft. In view of this drawback, prior efforts have focused on providing for a bow wheeled support assembly. Examples of these efforts can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,109,520, 3,567,241, 3,687,476, and 5,203,580. As early as 1914, solutions have been proposed that relied on a dolly approach to address the noted drawbacks. For example, many of the referenced patents rely on a dolly type approach wherein the weight of the dinghy is directed exclusively to the wheel and gunwale supports is used for alignment and securement of the dolly, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,567,241, 3,687,476, and 5,203,580. Referring to the noted patents, this class of dolly wheeling device must be installed and removed for transportation and use of the craft.
An alternative design relies on using the gunwale supports as a weight bearing member. This approach is best shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,109,520. With this invention, a fulcrum support is made by having the keel support act as a fulcrum point with the wheel and the gunwale being the extended load supports. In the '520 invention, the body supports are loosely fitted to the gunwales and extend forwardly and exteriorly of the boat sides. A keel supporting cross member links the two supports as does a wheel axle located near the end of the supports. When the keel rests upon the cross member and the weight of the boat supported by the wheel, the supports are compressively held against the gunwales. However, as with the dolly type inventions, the '520 invention must be removed after use and stored somewhere.
It is therefore apparent that a wheeled type portage accessory is needed that can be easily used to support the bow of a dinghy or like watercraft, easily stowed when not in use, and simple to manufacture and use. In view of these objectives, the following invention was made.